


Mom makes everything better

by DP_Marvel94



Series: Phic Phight 2020 [3]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Maddie messes up, Mentions of Death, Phic Phight, REALLY BADLY, The portal accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23673208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DP_Marvel94/pseuds/DP_Marvel94
Summary: For Phic Phight 2020. Danny was alone when he turned on the portal that first time. Maddie comes downstairs just in time to see it happen, and sees Phantom pop out from where she'd just seen her son disappear.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Maddie Fenton
Series: Phic Phight 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697827
Comments: 43
Kudos: 229





	Mom makes everything better

**Author's Note:**

  * For [The_Lord_of_Chaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lord_of_Chaos/gifts).



Maddie unbuckled her seat belt, glancing at her husband. “Where do you think your wallet is again?”

“In the kitchen. Sorry, I forgot it Mads.” He gripped and ungripped the steering wheel. “I guess my head’s just full with...the portal.”

She put a hand on his arm. “We’ll figure out why it didn’t work, dear.” Comfortingly, she gently squeezed his arm before moving away. “But not tonight. Danny did have a point. We need a break.”

“That’s true.”Jack nodded. “It’ll be nice to do something together.” He raised an eyebrow. “Like going to that diner on 5th?”

“You mean the one with the huge hot fudge sundaes?” She smiled knowingly, earning a hearty laugh from her husband. “That sounds lovely. I’ll be right back.”

Maddie hopped out of the RV and walked to the house. Opening the door, she found the room to be silent, too silent. Though her brow wrinkled, the woman shook off the unease. It was probably nothing. But the feeling that something was wrong followed her as she searched for the wallet. Walking into the kitchen, her gaze fell on the door to the lab. Her eyes widened; the door was open. She was sure they had closed it. The feeling of dread grew as she approached the door.

Then a terrible scream ran out. Maddie paled, instantly recognizing her son’s agonizing cry ringing from the basement. 

“Danny!” She sprinted down the stairs, heart pounding.

The scream continued, the sound raising goosebumps on her flesh.

“Danny!” The mother cried again, her eyes falling on the green light swirling in the mouth of the tunnel.

A small part of her mind registered what it was: the opening ghost portal. But most of her screamed. Her baby was in there! She ran towards it, instincts crying to leap in and save her child.

Then the terrible scream stopped. Maddie froze, her heart dropping. The scream had stopped but Danny was still inside the tunnel. Was he….did he….? He was still inside. Her mind swirled with dread. He had gone inside and….and….

Her body started shaking as tears collected in her eyes. Then something wavered at the portal’s surface, parting the mist. Maddie stiffened. Then her eyes widened. Two hands passed through the mist and then two arms. Wearing what looked like a Fenton jumpsuit.

Maddie ran forward, hope welling. “Danny!” He was alive!

She leapt forward, intent on comforting him. Then she stopped, knees buckling. The figure finally emerged from the mist and her mind registered the wrongness. The glowing being floated inches above the floor, sagging tiredly. Clearly, the inhuman monster was a ghost. An actual, potentially dangerous and powerful ghost. 

Any other time, she would have been ecstatic; finally proof of the legitimacy of her life’s work floated in front of her. But her mind raced with questions of her son. Where was he?

Slowly, the ghost raised its head. Maddie’s heart rate increased, as she fixed her unblinking gaze on it. She tensed, muscles preparing to run or fight if it attacked her. Then the ghost fixed haunting green eyes on her. “Mom?”

Her blood ran cold.

No.

“Mom?” An echoing version of Danny’s voice repeated.

No. No. NO! Previous fear draining into grief, she sobbed. A hand covered her mouth. Oh. God. Danny...Danny was dead. He was dead and her portal killed him. His screams had rang through this room earlier. And now he was dead.

“Mom. I don’t feel so good.” The ghost repeated. Her son’s ghost. This, in front of her, was Danny’s ghost.

Despite her shaking legs, the mother stumbled forward. Tears blurred her vision. “Danny, Danny. I’m so sorry.” She stopped a few feet from the ghost, part of her screaming to stay away from the dangerous creature. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She repeated the words like a mantra. Like if she said them enough, they could bring him back. 

The air in front of her chilled. “Mom. I don’t understand. What’s happening?”

Of course, of course he didn’t understand. He was dead! Her boy was dead!

Cold arms wrapped around her and she flinched. “Please. Mom I don’t understand.”

Sobbing, Maddie realized he was hugging her. Despite herself, a trembling hand reached up and ran through the white hair. 

“Danny.” The mother breathed.

She felt his chest heave against hers with unnecessary breath. Glowing tears fell down Danny's face and onto her clothes. Maddie sobbed too.

Then the hair under Maddie’s hand wavered into mist. The boy clinging to her turned slightly transparent and insubstantial. With a yelp, he literally fell through Maddie. The woman screamed, her whole body shivering from the cold violating her body.

The boy splayed out on the floor, rolling onto his back to stare up at Maddie. Eyes wide with fear, his wavering voice begged. “What’s happening to me?!” 

The plea came out supernaturally loud and the ghost’s aura flickered brighter. The temperature of the room dropped, causing Maddie’s breath to mist in front of her. She tensed as Danny floated to his feet.

No, not Danny. Danny’s ghost. Just a fragment of her son’s post human consciousness imprinted in ectoplasm. A ghost molded into his image and likeness. But not HIM, not really.

“Mom?” He pleaded again, fearfully. 

Maddie shivered, another sob rising. He remembered her. Danny’s ghost still remembered her. But it wouldn’t last. He would forget. In all the stories, ghosts always do. He would forget and become feral and violent. A malicious spirit with no purpose, no knowledge of why it lingered. He would turn into a true monster, a danger to everyone in Amity Park.

Heartbreaking, Maddie took a breath. Danny...Danny was gone, the echo in front of her all that remained. But she still had a husband, a daughter, and a town to protect. She knew what she had to do.

“Oh, my god. What the hell happened to my legs?!” The panicked exclamation brought her out of the thoughts. The ghost’s legs had morphed into a misty, twitching tail which he was staring at like it was a snake.

The Dannyness of the reaction brought a small smile to her face and then a pang of hurt to her heart. The mother imagined turning one of their large ectoguns on him, his son’s face morphing into betrayal, pain, and fear.  _ No, Mom! Please!  _ She imagined him begging for continued existence with her son’s voice. 

She couldn’t destroy him. No, never. Not ever. But she couldn’t put everyone in danger because of her weakness. Trembling, she glanced at the portal out the corner of her eye. There was another way. There had to be.

The ghost still floated in front of her, tail lashing under him. “Danny.” She softly called the name, the one she knew he would recognize as his, even if it wasn’t really.

Despite her instincts, Maddie drew the ghost into her arms. The hunter in her knew she should be cautious, afraid of this inhuman creature lashing out. But right now, it thought it was her child. And part of her screamed that she was its mother.

She hugged the ghost, which eagerly wrapped cold but surprisingly solid arms around her. She frowned; that, coupled with forming so soon after death, suggested a very powerful ghost. Trying to hold back her sob, Maddie took a deep breath. She would do what she had too, to protect the rest of her family and her son’s memory.

“Shhh, There. There. It will be okay, sweetie.” The false platitude stung, digging into her heart but she continued. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

Slowly she walked forward, towards the portal. The ghost clung to her, again weeping. Part of her marveled at how light the figure was while another part, winced in pain. This reaction- the panic, the crying- it was too human like. And holding the ghost in her arms was too much like holding Danny when he’d been a child.

Finally, Maddie stopped in front of the portal. The ghost remained posed between her and the misty surface, head just inches away. She sighed, bracing herself. “Look at me, baby.”

With a sniffle, the ghost raised his head, fixing innocent eyes on her. She stared right back, trying to crystalize the image of her mind. A child in its mother’s arms, innocently trusting that Mom was there and would make everything better. 

“I love you.” She whispered.

“I love you too, Mom.” His voice cracked with emotion.

She closed her eyes and leaning forward kissed the cold forehead, silently vowing to remember him like this. Not at the soulless, emotionless, memoryless monster he would turn into.

“I love you so much, Danny.” She repeated, her muscles tensing in preparation. “Please remember that while you still can.”

For a second, confusion flitter through those green eyes. Then betrayal as Maddie’s arms coiled and she pushed, harder than she thought was humanly possible. Hurt mard the ghost’s face as his arms were ripped from around Maddie’s neck. He sailed through the ectoplasmic mist, landing with a thud.

Maddie sprinted, her heart pounding. She slammed down on the button to close the portal’s ghost-proof blast doors.

“Mom! No!” The desperate cry sounded from the portal.

Maddie’s heaved with sobs as the doors slide closed.

“Please! Mom!” The doors slammed closed just as she caught one last glimpse of Danny’s face at the edge of the tunnel.

Her heart shattered. Legs unable to hold her the woman collapsed on the floor, weeping. Shouts, pleas echoed through the doors, though she couldn’t make out the words. Just Danny’s echoing voice. She sobbed. 

“Danny! Danny! I’m sorry.” She cried.

The sound of a body repeatedly impacting the metal rang out. Slam. Slam. Slam. The sound piercing Maddie’s skill, she shook.

“Oh god. Please forgive me. I’m sorry.” She pleaded.

Slam. Crash. More pounded and another shout. And it took all of Maddie’s self control to not open those doors.

Suddenly, the noise just stopped. The lab fell into eerie silence. And Maddie curled up on the floor and screamed in sorrow.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Mom Makes Everything Better](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27338359) by [watery_melon_baller](https://archiveofourown.org/users/watery_melon_baller/pseuds/watery_melon_baller)




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